Peaceful Hearts
by Star-Shaped-X
Summary: An alternate ending scenario to Terra's story in Castle of Dreams.


Edit 10/24/14: Another Night Without You was kind enough to make a cover for this fic because she's awesome! X3

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><p>This oneshot is an expanded version of the fifteenth part from my Drabbles of the Hearts challenge. It is not at all necessary that you read that first, but if you're interested in a smaller version of this for whatever reason it does exist there (really though, I recommend just reading this one; it's way preferable to the drabble).<p>

Anyone who knows what this title's referencing is instantly cool in my book. ;P Also, I do not have a proper computer right now but once I do I will be able to add a cover. :)

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><p>Terra and Cinderella entered the ballroom, greeted by the brilliant colors of swirling dresses and soothing music from the orchestra positioned at the back wall. Thankfully, despite the hordes Terra had fought to reach this point, he didn't see a single Unversed among the crowd. Master Eraqus had said they fed off negativity—perhaps the amusing atmosphere of the room offered no appeal to them.<p>

"Thank you, Terra," Cinderella commended. Terra smiled and bowed to her, holding out his hand as if asking her to dance. He meant the motion as a joke, just a clever way to leave her anticipating her own date, but Cinderella accepted the offer with a soft laugh and a small curtsy. She led him to the dance floor before he could explain, passing by a disappointed-looking man who Terra realizes must have been about to approach Cinderella.

It's the pride he felt noticing that which made him realize he wanted to dance with her too.

Cinderella turned to face him as they reached a clearing, lifting the edge of her dress just enough so it wouldn't drag on the floor. Terra placed his right hand on her waist. It's trepidatiously that he began to move her, but the way she smiled up at him gave Terra hope she didn't notice.

Terra had laughed when Master Eraqus had insisted he and Aqua learned how to dance like 'proper young ladies and gentlemen.' Now, with the rush his mind was going through trying to remember the simple instructions and his boots bumping against each other as he mismanaged his steps, he wished the lesson had come with a refresher course in his teenage years.

He realized with a start he'd been staring at his feet and raised his gaze to Cinderella again. She still seemed unperturbed, and he was sure she was just being polite, but the look on her face did ease the tension out of his body.

"It's exciting," Cinderella said. "The ball, I mean. You know, I've never been to one before."

"It's a first for me too," Terra chuckled. He began to let his movements follow the strum of strings rather than his memory, and the slow waltz became easier to follow. "It's nice to relax a bit. I haven't had many chances for it lately."

"Oh, I know exactly what you mean," Cinderella agreed.

Something about her tone told Terra he'd hit a sore subject and he decided to back off the conversation, instead letting his eyes wander further around the room. The weight of inadequacy returned to him as he noticed the clothing every other man in the room wore. They had dressed in suits becoming of nobility; he had a piece of metal strapped to his shoulder that could rip someone's outfit in the not-so-unlikely event that he ran into them with a misstep. He hoped Cinderella hadn't simply been too nice to turn him down. She dressed like a princess and moved like she'd been training for this all her life.

Another stumble brought Terra out of his reprieve. If the dance changed he would be hopeless. He decided if the man from before returned he would have to let Cinderella change partners.

"Are you alright?" Cinderella asked.

"Oh. Yes." Terra shook his head. "I was just . . . torn between thoughts. It's inspiring the way you believe so strongly. Sometimes I'm not even sure I should be trusted, but you have complete faith in yourself."

"But I never would have made it this far if you hadn't been there," she told him.

"Now that I don't believe," he insisted. "Cinderella, a light as strong as yours isn't one that can be put out so easily. It was hard to see it at first, but—

"The dress."

"Huh?"

Cinderella's eyes moved away, into the pulsating crowd of strangers. "Under the moon's glow or the castle's chandelier, this dress sparkles. But as you saw, it's only temporary. This . . . light . . . it isn't really mine, you see."

"Wha . . ." Terra furrowed his brow, realizing his mistake. "No, wait, that's not what I meant."

"But what else was possibly different about me when we met?" Cinderella's smile returned as she looked up to him again. "I'm sorry, Terra. I didn't mean to complain." Her eyes lit up again and vibrancy returned to her movements. "I'm just so happy to finally be at the ball. I've danced here many nights, but never outside my bedroom. Tonight my dream came true."

She rested her head on his chest, still following the slow spin. Her smile widened as she observed everyone else enjoying their time as well. "And when it's over, I'll still have the most wonderful friends to go home to. That makes everything else worth it."

Her light only became more astonishing to him as he read between the lines. Aurora had been serenely asleep until Terra found her, and Snow White seemed naïve enough to assume she'd led a sheltered life; things were obviously different for Cinderella. And she couldn't even bring herself to properly mind it. She'd dealt with everything without ever once in her life letting even the slightest touch of darkness find its way into her heart. The possibility of such a feat amazed him.

His own life had been relatively mild until recently, and he'd still developed more darkness than he could handle.

"Cinderella."

"Hm?" She lifted her head to look to him again.

"Your friends_—_they make you happy, don't they?" Terra asked.

"But of course," she laughed.

He smiled. "Well they may be the cause of that happiness, but the source is still you. It's the same with the dress. It may look nice, but what's really radiant is the smile it brought out of you. That's what makes you shine. A light as strong as yours is one most places don't know." _Maybe one I shouldn't risk being around._

Before Terra could gauge her reaction, Cinderella was knocked from his grip by . . . a flying drum? Terra whipped around to see it float towards what he quickly recognized as a large Unversed gliding down from the balcony. The Unversed stood at over twice Terra's height, with a body resembling a green and yellow marching band conductor, complete with a jagged baton. A trumpet and violin also served as convoy to the monster, and Terra was willing to bet they were as intent on causing damage as the drum. The orchestra lurched to a silent halt and the people nearest Cinderella had backed away, but those who hadn't seen the first blow stared up in awe as if expecting a show.

The Unversed waved its baton, summoning music from its three sentient instruments with its hands tumbling around each other. Terra summoned his Keyblade and approached the monster as it landed. It had no eyes he could see beneath its hat, but turned its head towards him just the same, as if watching, before directing the trumpet towards him. Terra braced himself, expecting the same tackle from the drum, but instead the trumpet stopped a meter ahead of him and shot out a blast of musical energy. Terra dodged the wave, and it continued on behind him to hit a handful of the bystanders.

Terra mentally cursed at himself—he was unaccustomed to fighting with any audience to worry about—but the dancers realized this was not an act and rushed to flee the scene. Terra heard someone fruitlessly calling for guards and saw the man from earlier helping up the people dazed by the trumpet's attack. With the crowd behind him thinning down, Terra readied to charge the Unversed, but turned to the nearby clacking noise of glass-on-tile to see Cinderella running to his side.

"I'll take care of this," Terra said, commanding her to back down.

Cinderella's face was nothing if not brave. "This is another of those creatures, isn't it? You said so yourself to stay close to you when they're around."

A flash of light ahead of him brought Terra's attention back to the Unversed, just in time to guard against the spinning projectile that was the thing's now-elongated baton. He knocked the weapon away with a heavy grunt, and it spun back to its owner. This Unversed was stronger than the others he'd found in this world. He needed to focus.

"Terra—"

"Not this time," he shouted. "Go!"

"Miss, this way." Finished aiding the injured bystanders, the man from earlier had rushed over to Cinderella and was now urging her to evacuate with him. Cinderella spared one more glance to Terra before nodding and following him out of the room. The remaining guests and the musicians from the back were soon to follow, until Terra was the only person left in the large room.

Still arranging the obnoxious symphony with masterful hands, the Unversed sent the drum barreling towards Terra. He knocked it away with his Keyblade easily enough, but the Unversed then directed all three instruments in his direction, each charging him whilst surrounded by musical energy. He was only narrowly able to weave around them when the baton split into five glowing spikes that shot into his chest and arms.

Terra growled under his breath, backed up against the wall now. A full-throttle direct assault wasn't going to work with this one, he realized. It was too clever, and had the three instruments serving as cover. He would have to think strategically to avoid being struck again.

Terra steadied his Keyblade, and his breathing. Strategy. That he could do.

The drum launched itself at Terra and he hurled himself confidently into the brawl.

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><p>A loud slam echoed through the hall just as Cinderella and her new escort were about to exit the castle. Even this far out, she could feel the vibrations through the cold floor.<p>

"He'll be fine," the man told her when she stopped running, letting the other evacuees run pass by them and out the doors.

"Of course he will," Cinderella said, looking back. "He's strong. The kind of strength I can have faith in."

Still she continued to not budge, staring back they way they'd come until a small, confident grin curled up on her face.

"Which means," she declared, "that I have nothing to be scared of." And with that she ran back towards the battle, ignoring the pleas of the man behind her.

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><p>"Freeze!" Terra shouted, blasting blizzard magic at another floating instrument, which disintegrated into nothingness. Both the drum and the trumpet were gone now, leaving the Unversed with only one shield. Terra was breathing heavily from circling around and dodging the myriad of attacks the Unversed had thrown at him, but he had always been good at finding reserve strength, whereas his opponent's previously light footwork was now looking no better than Terra's dancing. But if there was one thing he'd learned about Unversed, it was that they didn't know how to retreat.<p>

It threw its baton at him again, and Terra easily slid around both it and the malevolent melody coming from the approaching violin. As he homed in on the large Unversed, it jumped up to the ceiling, intent on slamming down on him as it'd come close to doing just a minute before. Terra was ready for it this time, leaping into the air as it landed to avoid both the impact and the resulting shock wave. He heaved his Keyblade through the Unversed as he came down, and the creature toppled to the ground, losing its hat and fading back to where it came from. Terra turned to finish off the violin, but with its master gone it disappeared as well.

As Terra allowed his Keyblade to vanish, a lanky man wearing a monocle popped out from around the corner. "Thank you," he said. "You saved us all." Terra recognized his voice as the same one which had tried to call the guards earlier, and he wondered with a small chuckle if he'd been waiting this entire time from them to show up. The man groaned. "The guests were just starting to enjoy themselves . . ."

Terra scanned the room with a sigh. The decor had hardly been harmed, but he doubted if the castle would resume the event after that scare. _So much for Cinderella's first ball . . ._ And he was still nowhere closer to figuring out why the Unversed had targeted this world, or the others. How could an entire species crop up in over many worlds so quickly?

"Tell me something," Terra said. "Have you always had a problem around here with those monsters?"

"No. I—"

"Terra!" He turned to see Cinderella running towards him from the room's entrance. A grin broke on his face, mirroring the one she wore.

"Madame, please, it's not safe—Oh . . ." The man from earlier must have followed Cinderella back, but he slowed down as he rounded the corner and realized the danger was gone. The monacled man rushed over to tend to him.

As Cinderella reached Terra's side again, he noticed she stood lopsided, and realized the way she'd run almost looked as though she had a limp. "Are you hurt?" she asked before he could.

Terra frowned. "I'm fine. But you—"

Cinderella shook her head. "I'll be alright," she insisted. "Maybe just a bruise on my arm; nothing more."

"But your leg . . ." Terra gestured.

"Oh, this?" She giggled softly, and lifted the hem of her dress off the floor. "I'm just a little off-balance. I lost one of my slippers on the stairs, you see."

Terra let out a small laugh, relieved and a little embarrassed that he'd worried. "Still, you shouldn't have to walk like that. Wait here and I'll go get it."

"Impossible, I'm afraid," sighed the man who'd accompanied Terra from the ballroom. "It shattered underfoot some of the last guests." He looked to Cinderella apologetically. "I don't think anyone was hurt, but the fragments of glass we passed on the way back can't be worn now."

"I see," Terra muttered.

"Oh please, don't worry." Cinderella smiled up at him, and slid the remaining slipper off her foot. "You see, I don't need it anymore."

She rested her hand atop his Keyblade armor, and he placed his on her waist, and together they had their own small dance to the tune of midnight bells.

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><p>This was great fun to write and surprisingly came out very natural for me too, which is always awesome. I'm really feel the Terralla lately too. :) A special shout-out again to mystic moogle, who was the original requester of this pairing for my drabble challenge. I probably would not have written this were it not for that.<p>

(Also, Final Mix version of Symphony Master in honor of the recent release of Kingdom Hearts II.5. :3)

- Star-Shaped-χ


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